Did a photographer from The Weather Channel take a picture of a dolphin being blown out of the water by hurricane Dorian winds? No, that's not true: the image was a photoshop by a satire website. It is not real.
The story originated from an article published by People of Lancaster in 2016 but updated in 2019 titled "Photographer Captures Dolphin Caught In Hurricane Winds" (archived here) which opened:
FORT PIERCE, FL - A photographer with The Weather Channel captured the strength and tragedy of severe weather this evening when he photographed a dolphin that was caught in Hurricane Dorian's winds.
"I have photographed hundreds of tornados and four hurricanes. I've never seen winds so strong that dolphins were blown from the ocean." said Ernie Schwartz of The Weather Channel.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Photographer Captures Dolphin Caught In Hurricane Winds
FORT PIERCE, FL - A photographer with The Weather Channel captured a dolphin that was caught in Hurricane Matthew's winds.
The website People of Lancaster carries a satire warning on the about page:
People of Lancaster is a mix of news, opinion, and satire about the people, places and interests of Lancaster County, PA.
Much of the content on this site is satire inspired by real people or events that we love to coat with a heavy layer of snark and sarcasm.
How can you tell what is real and what is satire?
Well, if 'obvious' escapes you and you lack the intellectual curiosity to discover the truth for yourself you can view the tags assigned to every story published on the website. Stories that are satire are assigned the 'satire' tag as shown in the image below and displayed at the bottom of every article published.
The article in question was tagged "DOLPHINS, EARL SNEED, HURRICANE DORIAN, SATIRE".
Funnily enough the story was recycled from 2016 when it appeared on the same site on the same URL but claiming to be about hurricane Matthew:
Is This a Dolphin Caught in Hurricane Winds?
On 7 October 2016, the web site The People of Lancaster web site published an article reporting that a Weather Channel photographer had captured an image of a dolphin caught in the strong winds of Hurricane Matthew: A photographer with The Weather Channel captured the strength and tragedy of severe weather this evening when he photographed a dolphin that was caught in Hurricane Matthew's winds.
The story as it was in 2016 can be seen here on the Internet Archive.
The source image for the photoshop appears to be even older, it appears in this 2004 BBC story about hurricane Frances:
BBC NEWS | Americas | New hurricane fear for Caribbean
Hurricane Frances lashed the Florida coastline Residents of several Caribbean islands are bracing themselves for the arrival of a strong hurricane over the next 24 to 36 hours. Hurricane Ivan is moving towards Barbados, St Vincent, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and Martinique, US officials said.
